Addiction

"The path of descent is the path of transformation.  Darkness ,failure, relapse, death, and roundedness are our primary teachers, rather than idea or doctrines. "

Richard  Rohr

The view out the window that I show above is a beautiful one.  The snow  falls, the roads and parking lot are peaceful.  A fresh blanket  covers all of yesterdays dirt , sand and salt.  There is a deep sense of quiet.  

This week we heard of yet another actor that's life came to an end  due to drug addiction. James Seyour Hoffman died  at  46 years old.  It is said that he struggled with addiction since the age of 22.  

This week I enjoyed lunch with my son who is working on an Ambulance  in the state of Maine.  He talked about the increased number of deaths by heroin in the last year.  He talked about the devastating road Heroin leads people down.  He talked about powerlessness. 

I was recently in a conversation with someone  that has watched their husband, a smart, clever, successful man, lose everything, including his marriage, to Heroin.  This person delivered food to an abandoned building so he would have food.  This person drove home crying.   

NPR reports: 

"Drug overdoses have plagued New Hampshire for years, and until recently their leading cause was prescription medication, namely methadone and oxycodone.

It's not anymore.

Deaths last year from heroin - 38 - outpaced those from any other drug, according to Dr. Thomas Andrew, the state's chief medical examiner. And for the past two years, he said, heroin accounted for the most deaths from overdoses of a single drug."

Why do I write about this?  How did I get from peace and beauty to the devastating and painful realities of addiction?  I got here because we each have that vulnerable place within us, that craves acceptance and peace.  I got here  because we must not close our eyes to the reality of this painful  disease.  

 

As a community of faith we gather together around the common belief that God is at the center of our lives.  We gather with the ever present hope that we can be there for each other and the world.  We gather together to hold each other and empower each other to make the world a place of meaning and  purpose.  One aspect of that work is not turning a blind eye to things in our midst that are breaking or broken.  

Heroin addiction is something that happens to other people.  Addiction can happen to anyone. Many of us know the empty feeling in the soul that nothing can fill.  We live in a world that tells us that if you take a pill, or use some substance outside yourself, that loneliness, self-loathing or that  lost feeling will go away.  We live in a world that is a place of joy and pain, a place of peace and turmoil, a place of hard work and rest.  We live ......

"Thou hast made us for thyself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they find their rest in Thee. "

St. Augustine

The snow rests beautifully on the land in front of us.  It is beautiful today and yet, will soon be changed.  How are we changed when we long for God's love to fill those places in our soul that long for some rest?  

Addiction is a disease that we cannot treat with will power alone.  It is not a disease that we can treat for someone else.  Addiction is a disease that runs in families and affects all of us.  Heroin is in the

 news right now.  It has become the current killer of many.  

I write this so that we can be aware.  There is help available for those that are struggling with addiction or those that love someone who is.  We have  an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting here at St. John's on Thursday evening. 

There is a prayer in the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous called the Third Step prayer.  The Third Step is one of 12 that are the basis for recovery in Twelve Step Programs.  

Step Three

"Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over 

to the care of God as we understood Him."

  

The following is a prayer that can help us to this:

The Third Step Prayer

from page 63 of the Big Book of

 Alcoholics Anonymous

God, I offer myself to Thee-
To build with me
and to do with me as Thou wilt.
Relieve me of the bondage of self,
that I may better do Thy will.
Take away my difficulties,
that victory over them may bear witness
to those I would help of Thy Power,
Thy Love, and Thy Way of life.
May I do Thy will always!

We pray each week that God help us with those things that get in our way of being the people God most needs us to be.  We pray that God take away our sins.  We pray to be "relieved of the bondage of self."  We pray these things each time we say the "Lord's Prayer." 

As we look out of our windows on this day, we will each see a different landscape.  But we each long for a God that is there to walk this life with us.  We long to not be alone and empty.  Let us pray for those we love that struggle with addiction.  Let us pray for ourselves as we too struggle with the temptations that promise us peace and escape.  Let us pray to be released from the Bondage of fear and hopelessness.